A photographer's view of the world – words and images to inspire your travels and your dreams

June 16, 2018June 16, 2018

Artistic flags celebrate Royal Academy anniversary

Time for six words again! And yes, I’m rambling on beyond my six…

This summer, Royal Academicians Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker, Rose Wylie and Joe Tilson are decorating the streets of London with over 200 flags, marking the 250th anniversary of the Royal Academy.

The architectural flags of Joe Tilson adorn Regent Street. He drew inspiration from his paintings of “the historical architecture and churches of Venice, a theme I have been exploring for the past ten years. I first visited Venice in the 1950s, and have remained deeply connected to the city ever since.” The paintings themselves are on display in this year’s Summer Exhibition, on until 19 August 2018.

Regent Street St James’s waves flags from Cornelia Parker’s One Day This Glass Will Break series, which she describes as “recent photogravure prints I made using familiar everyday objects … inspired by the still-lives of William Fox Talbot”. She points out that she captures moment son flux rather than pure still life and “the images become re-animated when the wind blows”.

On Bond Street, you’ll find the more domestic-themed flags of Rose Wylie, who has used details from her recent Lolita’s House, a project that references a house across the street from her 1970s home.

Meanwhile, on Piccadilly, you’ll find the work of Grayson Perry, the curator of this year’s Summer Exhibition. He wanted his flags “to be like a series of doodles and sketches that just came about spontaneously, the subjects just popping up from what was preoccupying me at the time”, so “my subjects range from selfies and shopping to Oscar Wilde and my cat Kevin. Mainly I wanted to fill the street with lively colour.” He has certainly achieved that.

If you get into London during the summer, these fluttering pieces of art will brighten up your wanderings.

Cornelia Parker

Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie

Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry

Cornelia Parker

Grayson Perry

Joe Tilson

Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie

Now over to all of you. Do come and join us in our Saturdaysix-word musings.

I’ll admit that many of us openly break the numeric rule (including me this week) and share far more words (all excellent of course!) so the key rule is to have a title of six words; then create around that, the post you desire! Perhaps in bunches of 6 words if you’re feeling numerically inspired.

To join the challenge, please put a link in your post to the URL of this post. Then come back here and leave us a comment. If you have any problems with linking, just put your own URL into the comment. And do feel free to socialise digitally – tweet, instagram, flickr, etc. with the hashtagtags #SixWordSaturday and #6WS.

I’m pleased to join in – I pingbacked last night while it was still Saturday downunder. We have flagpoles in our main street and I’m always pleased when the council uses them to announce some festival or seasonal event. This colourful display is incredible, and six words would have left us wanting.

I’m much more succinct this week, Debs, but not linked properly- sorry! I find using my daughter’s computer a challenge. I’d love to be strolling beneath these flags, or indeed at the Royal Academy but I’m in rather damp Nottingham. Sunshine later… 🙂 🙂 https://restlessjo.me/2018/06/16/six-word-saturday-280/

The Royal Academy is a must for this summer, especially now the new building has opened. I haven’t bene in yet.
I’m glad you got to Nottingham ok despite you secret dislike for tickets! Have a good weekend Jo

Wow, I didn’t know about these flags. What a fabulous idea, I’d love to have seen them. To be honest, I don’t really get Grayson Perry. Some of his flags look like what my granddaughter draws. Sorry Grayson!